Spelloween 2025: Day 20

Don’t mind me. Trying to get back into the groove of habits left behind. Today is October 20, 2025, and it’s time to have some fun. Each day of the month of October, I’m going to put together a little spell that involves one of my favorite tools: Tarot cards.

None of this is meant to be taken seriously, unless you want to do just that. All of this is in fun and with good intentions. All of this is meant to bring me joy. If you get some of that joy-juice as well, then all the better.

These spells are meant to be modified, adapted, used “as is”, or as inspiration for your personal rituals. Feel free to change them to suit your personal circumstances.

Day 20: Page of Cups – Letting It Soak In

Gather the following:

• The Page of Cups card from your tarot deck. If using an alternate deck, then pull the card that corresponds to “study”, “learning”, or “innovation”.
• Optional: A clear waterproof storage bag to protect the tarot card from spills.
• Optional: A copy or other rendition of the Page of Cups tarot card.
• A glass of drinking water that contains just enough water for you to drink comfortably in one sitting. So if you can only drink a few sips at a time before having to stop to catch your breath, then only put that much water in the glass.
• Your study materials. Could be a physical book, magazine, or homework packet. Could be an e-book, an app on your tablet or phone, or a online course. Could also be your guitar, your sewing sampler, or your latest attempt to draw a straight line. What is it that you want to learn?
• A timer. Could be your clock app on your phone. Could be a physical timer that goes tick-tick.
• A block of uninterrupted time. Ideally this would be equivalent to your patience for suffering studying, however beggars students make do.
• Optional: A dedicated working area for purifications, consecrations, and the like.

You have to get a mental wrap on this thing but the topic is just eluding you. You have used the resources available to you but somehow it’s just not clicking. Not all subjects come easy to the student, and sometimes the vagaries of life just makes it extra difficult to keep focused on the topic at hand.

This spell is not a substitute for professional instruction, and is marginally better than sleeping with your textbook under your pillow. This spell is also dependent on the caster doing their part. To be clear, the caster’s part is not to learn something. The caster’s part is to try.

The spell:

1. Optional: Prepare your working area as usual and there place the Page of Cups tarot card (or your copy, or your safely stored card) and the glass of water. Dedicate the card and/or the glass of water to this working.
2. Prepare your study area as usual. Close enough to be aware of their presence, but far enough away to minimize the risk of knocking the glass of water over, place your Page of Cups card, the glass of water, and your timer if it is separate from your study materials.
3. Pick up your Page of Cups card and address it as if a good friend. In your own words, tell the card (out loud or silently) that it is time for both of you to study your chosen fields, that the Page of Cups will study what is best for them (use your preferred gender for the card, if needed) and you will study [your chosen topic for this working] for the specific amount of time you are willing to dedicate.
   For example: “Hello fellow nerd. Okay, Page of Cups, it’s time for me to get started with Underwater Basket Weaving Principles. Thanks for studying with me. You study what you need to study and I’m going to get into this book for the next hour.”
4. Place the Page of Cups down on the table, counter, or other steady horizontal surface. Place the glass of water on the card. (You may use the copy or protected card here.)
5. If your timer is with the card, then set your timer for your chosen period. Otherwise, return to where your study materials are and begin the timer there.
6. Study as best as you can as your circumstances permit. If you have to bounce between topics, then bounce. If you have to take deliberate distraction measures to keep yourself mostly focused on the topic, then do so. The idea being that you actively engage yourself in your chosen topic in whatever method is most effective for you.
7. When the timer goes off: STOP STUDYING. No, really. Put the book down. Pause the video. Tuck the needle in the tomato. Take a breath and get up from the study materials.
8. Go to the Page of Cups and pick up the glass of water. (Silence the timer if you haven’t already.)
9. Toast the Page of Cups with the glass of water and declare (out loud or silently) that ‘It’s time to let this soak in!”, and then drink the water completely.
10. Optional: If you are still parched, then by all means, go get more water!
11. Reset your timer for five minutes, and have a silent sit with the Page of Cups card. How much of your study is coming back to mind? Are difficult topics starting to feel easier to you? But most importantly: Are you willing to sit through another study session right now?
12. If so, fill the glass of water with the appropriate amount for you and repeat the working starting from Step 4.
13. If not, thank the Page of Cups for sitting with you. With your expression of gratitude, the working comes to an end, and you may disassemble your study area, wash your glass, and place the tarot card back in it deck.
14. Optional: Get ice cream.

This spell is repeatable for as long as you have the thought to study. You can also repeat it with different study subjects being targeted. Your first study could be a secondary language, your second study could be the taxonomy of bread clips, and your third study could be quiet meditation. You do you.